Trucks not destined for city; cannot use National Highways

"Non-destined trucks have been banned from entering the capital for several years now. However, enforcing this has been difficult because of the acute shortage of personnel. Also, we check the work orders and many have the required documentation in place," said a senior government official.Rumu Banerjee | TNN | February 19, 2016, 09:02 IST

NEW DELHI: The transport department issued a public notice on Thursday against diesel trucks entering the city.

The notice comes after a Supreme Court order banning entry of polluting vehicles not destined for Delhi. However, officials admit that enforcing the rule may prove to be difficult.

"Non-destined trucks have been banned from entering the capital for several years now. However, enforcing this has been difficult because of the acute shortage of personnel. Also, we check the work orders and many have the required documentation in place," said a senior government official.

To check entry of diesel vehicles, Delhi government has also introduced a pollution fee on commercial vehicles entering the city.

What makes the current public notice important, said transport experts, is the government's decision not to allow trucks not bound for Delhi to enter the national highways going through the city. The notice states that such vehicles will not be allowed to use NH-1, NH-8, NH-2, NH-10, NH-57 and NH-58.

"The most important aspect, if implemented properly, would be the government's order saying diesel vehicles registered before 2005 or more than 10 years old, will not be allowed to enter Delhi. This is significant," said SP Singh of IFTRT adding, "If implemented properly, this will stop a major source of pollution."

The public notice also reiterates that trucks entering the city will have to pay a pollution cess. The pollution charge was originally introduced in the budget last year but never levied.

The government intends to use the funds collected from this to augment environment-friendly public transport system, install weigh-in-motion bridges and several other initiatives to improve Delhi's ambient air quality.

Implementation remains a sore point though. "We are already in the process of installing CCTV at the main entry points. However, collecting of taxes is done by MCD. However, the fact remains that checking the work order of every vehicle is difficult, especially during a staff crunch," said a senior government official.

At present, teams of enforcement officials check vehicles randomly and those found in violation are turned away or impounded. Lack of turnaround space and the absence of a parking lot for impounded vehicles has proved to be a problem though.